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Be careful what you wish for … you just might get it. Jill Stein didn’t get the recount she wanted in Michigan, but she did get the state to take vote-integrity issues seriously. Meeting in its lame-duck session, the state House of Representatives passed a tough voter-ID bill that includes $3 million for funding of free state identification and birth certificates after over 18,000 voters cast ballots without identification in the presidential election:

Michigan’s Republican-led House on Wednesday night approved a strict voter identification proposal over strenuous objections from Democrats who argued the plan could disenfranchise properly registered voters.

Michigan voters without photo identification could still cast a provisional ballot under the controversial legislation, but they would have to bring an ID to their local clerk’s office within 10 days of an election in order for their vote to count.
Current law requires a photo ID too, but also allows for voters to sign an affidavit under oath that attests to their identity and eligibility. The House might have had ample reason to wonder about abuse under that system when looking at the distribution of the practice. The Detroit News’ Jonathan Oostling reports that almost half of all such votes took place in heavily Democratic Wayne County, and almost 6,000 in the city of Detroit alone. That seems oddly disproportional, given that Wayne County accounted for just 16% of the state’s total.

Trump picks Joaquín Guzmán to run D.E.A.

—Just days after picking Betsy DeVos to run the Department of Education, President-elect Donald Trump has tapped another wealthy outsider by naming Joaquín Guzmán, known as “El Chapo,” to head the Drug Enforcement Administration.

In an official statement, Trump said that El Chapo’s “tremendous success in the private sector” showed that he has what it takes to “shake things up” at the D.E.A.

Trump’s appointment of the former drug lord surprised many in Washington, in no small part because acrimony between the two allegedly prompted El Chapo, in 2015, to put a hundred-million-dollar bounty on Trump’s head.

But, appearing on CNN, the Trump surrogate Kellyanne Conway said that the selection of El Chapo should surprise no one. “Mr. Trump always said that he would surround himself with the best people,” she said.

When asked why Trump had readily offered a job to El Chapo while still mulling the fate of another former adversary, Mitt Romney, Conway said, “El Chapo might not have voted for Mr. Trump, but that’s because he’s Mexican and in jail, and Mitt Romney is neither.”

The appointment of the former drug kingpin is far from a done deal, however, as associates of El Chapo report that he is “concerned” that being a member of the Trump Administration would be bad for his brand.

Former Mets and Red Sox skipper and current Sacred Heart University athletic director Bobby Valentine is on the short list of candidates for United States ambassador to Japan, WEEI in Boston reports.

Valentine, 66, has known Trump for around 30 years, and managed the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan for seven seasons. He became the first manager born in the United States to win the Japan Series in 2005.

With those connections, and a few more to Trump’s cabinet, Chris Christie floated Valentine’s name in discussions about the position, according to WEEI.

After beginning his career in Texas, Valentine went 536–467 with the Mets from 1996–2002, winning the National League pennant in 2000. After a 10-year absence, he returned to manage the Red Sox for a season in 2012, going 69–93. He was replaced in 2013 by the team’s current manager, John Farrell, who led Boston to a World Series in his first season.

Trump Appoints Bill Cosby As Secretary For Women’s Rights

PRESIDENT-elect Donald Trump continues to fill out his cabinet more and more each day, and today he has picked someone he feels is the perfect candidate for Secretary for Women’s Rights; comedian and TV star Bill Cosby.

“I get confused, hiring men as secretaries” tweeted Trump, in a rare moment of honesty.

“But when I do, I just pick the best people. Really. Ask anyone. Just the best people. So when I was told that I would have to elect someone that would handle all the matters relating to women and women’s rights in this country, I immediately knew there was one man for the job, Cliff Huxtable himself”.

Trump, who has come under fire for hiring controversial far-right Breitbart News executive chair Steve Bannon as his chief strategist and for considering renowned creationist Jerry Falwell Jr as his Secretary of Education, is adamant that Cosby will be ideal for the position despite his recent run-ins with the law.

“Look, the things they were saying about Cosby, they say those things about me too, ” said Trump, ahead of a December hearing relating to his alleged rape of a 13-year-old girl.